It's like a freakin' plague.

[monkeybard]

Jon and Kate Plus 8 is bad enough.  Now TLC is premiering Table for 12.  Two sets of twins, the ad for Table for 12 says.  Two sets of twins, and then sixtuplets.  I would venture to guess that most people with only one set of twins would consider that to be plenty challenging.  Two sets?  That's pushing it, but it could happen.  But to reproduce at all after popping out four kids is nothing but selfish and irresponsible.  Stop, stop, stop putting these people on display!  Putting people like this on television implies that it is in some way acceptable that they have bred like rabbits.  It isn't.

Comments

[monkeybard]

I suspect the current multiple parents need the money a reality TV show brings in. If it means the children are better taken care of I don't mind it.

There is that, but if they can't afford the kids without the income from a TV show (which they can't have counted on before the fact), then they shouldn't be having them in the first place, IMO. Religion be damned (if you'll forgive the phrasing). This sort of rampant breeding is inexcusably irresponsible.

This is where I think China really has it right. Legal restrictions on the number of births is A Good Thing.

Let's just hope the kids grow up to want space of their own.

One can only hope. Perhaps they'll choose to rebel by not reproducing.

Re: Long winded reply

[monkeybard]

Good long winded reply. :)

Seems like eugenics is just a snappy euphemism for "crimes against humanity".

Overpopulation is a complex problem. I remember reading Elspeth Huxley's third autobiography in which she said that western medical care was both a blessing and a curse in Africa--where she grew up. (This was around the 1950s maybe? It's been too long since I read it to remember.) It meant fewer infant deaths, which was good, but it didn't slow down the rate at which the people reproduced, which was bad because it caused a fast and unsupportable growth in population. It was intervention with corresponding education to explain that "you don't need to make so many children since the majority are now surviving". Instead, the people were still stuck in the mindset of "reproduce because who knows how many will make it."

Re: Long winded reply

[monkeybard]

Why people listen to an octogenarian virgin who dresses like Liberace's cousin I have no idea.
ROFL! I love you. :D

[leiliaxf.livejournal.com]

yeah, I'm with you there.

QUIT BREEDING, DUMBASSES!

[monkeybard]

Word.

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

Gotta disagree with you on the legal issue.

Government doesn't belong in my uterus, period. Not to tell me NOT to have a baby, or to tell me I HAVE to have it.

I do agree that people think it's too easy to find money to take care of multiple births. But most multiples aren't occurring naturally (beyond twins and triplets), so they are having to make a conscious choice to have many tiny babies. Regulate that industry by giving limitations on how many implants are allowed, and that should take care of the problem.

People I know from large families took care of their own. Nobody seems to want to do that anymore. That's the problem.

[monkeybard]

I am so with you on regulation within the fertility industry! I don't know whether any of the Table for 12 births were the result of medical intervention, but I can't believe that the sextuplets were all natural. People want to get naturally knocked up over and over again, well, that's there prerogative (with which I obviously disagree), but the companies and/or doctors who are aiding people who already have multiple children to have more multiple children are sick-making.

[gigitrek.livejournal.com]

Hey, I (and many other people) would settle for one right about now!

I don't think anyone should be able to arbitrarily tell you how many children you can or can't have, but I would like some more responsibility from the IVF-related medical professionals, which is how the vast majority of cases occur. Make it mandatory for people to have counselling or something before they get additional IVF treatments.

The doctors should find out why parents want large numbers of kids in the first place, and how they plan to support them, not just pay for the IVF treatments. While they're at it, talk about why these parents feel adopting or fostering the additional kids isn't an option for them. That should avoid the crazy octo-mom phenomenon, and let people who genuinely just want big families be happy, too.

[reedfem.livejournal.com]

You need proof of income to buy a car or a house. Why not IVF? Kids are expensive.

[monkeybard]

Word.

[gigitrek.livejournal.com]

Potential adoptive parents have to prove all kinds of things, including income. I never understood why they wouldn't do the same for IVF patients.

[monkeybard]

Yes, yes! It all boils down to responsibility. Responsibility on the part of the parent. Responsibility on the part of the fertility docs. And I'm sure the docs would say it's the parents' responsiblity. Well, yes, it ought to be, but if people are going to behave in a deliberatel irresponsible fashion, then there needs to be some sort of check and balance on their actions.

[monkeybard]

I think I remember that scene from Parenthood. Sums it up very well, IMO.

Yeah, again, it comes down to responsibility. Follow your religion if you want. Just because I don't agree doesn't make it "wrong", but for crying out loud take responsibility! And just as much, teach responsibility. That's a concept that's been lost (at least in the U.S.) with the more recent generations. I can, will, and do blame much of that on the large percentage of Baby Boomers who had kids and taught them that they were "entitled" instead of instilling in them a sense of responsibility and a need to earn the things you desire.

[reedfem.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering how long it will be before someone gives the octomom a TV show...

[monkeybard]

Gods forbid! That woman needs to be comptelely out of the spotlight. Someone behaves like her, I have to wonder about her motives, and that makes me think she's in it for the attention. It's like the crazy fan who runs onto the field in a sporting match. They want attention, so instead of giving it, the cameras are immediately turned away and the radio chatter of the incident is cut to the bare minimum.

[sunkrux.livejournal.com]

At least Jon & Kate have jobs to pay for all their kids. She does work part time as a nurse and he's in the computer industry. They also teach their kids to give back to the community. Yes I admit it, I occasionally watch their show...the kids are just too damn cute NOT to watch them.

As for Octomom...the doc that implanted all those babies in her should have his license taken away forfuckingever. I certainly hope no one gives HER, her own show. IMHO, she it completely mentally unbalanced. I fear for all 14 of her kids. She doesn't have a job, spent tons of money on plastic surgery (no it's not a gift of nature that she sorta resembles Angelina Jolie). I'm so sick of hear about her, the joy of living in the same state/area she lives in. The same doc who implanted her with the 8 embryos, implanted another single woman with 4. He should not be allowed to do that. I also think any woman who wants that many kids while still single is not playing with a full deck.

[monkeybard]

Props to Jon & Kate if they're teaching their children to behave as responsible members of the species. I don't find kids cute (you know me ;) ) so there is no reason beyond the whole "train wreck" aspect to make me watch it.

I understand implanting multiple embryos based on the theory that they won't all take, but a limit has got to be set. And that particular doc, needs to have his license suspended pending serious investigation.

[sunkrux.livejournal.com]

Yes I know you don't find kids cute, but I still loves ya. ;)

I understand the implanting multiple embryos, but to implant 8 with the expectation that not all will make it, especially considering in Octomom's case, they all made it, is wrong.

[fisherbear.livejournal.com]

Yeah, much as I like the idea of a breeder's license, the truth is that I don't trust a bureaucracy to hand them out. The guy with 18 kids was apparently a politician of some sort, so no doubt he'd have a license and a spare, but gays who decide to have kids would have another layer of hell to go through.

That said, putting these families on TV is a failure of epic proportions. What's next? Tonight on the Discovery Channel: "Slash 'n S'mores", the hijinks of the warm-hearted people who bring marshmallows to Amazonian clearance fires. Watch them interact with the local wildlife! Look at all the pretty colors! Fires are pretty at night. We'll be back next year with our crack squad of ghost hunters, for spooky yet funny and ultimately uplifting encounters with last year's population!

Yep, feelin' cranky tonight. As Opus might have put it, thbbbpt.

[monkeybard]

There's where it all falls down, of course. I don't think some beaucratic buffoon should have the right to say who breeds and who doesn't. (I'm still all over China for their one baby thing though. I know, I know. Contradiction City. I'm also a bleeding heart liberal who believes in capital punishment. Go figure.) I like reedfem's suggestion of proof of income. At least it's a start.

I'm with you and Opus: thbbbpt!

Re: Found this on Strombo.com

[monkeybard]

What an awesome commercial/PSA! Love it!